Queer Screen Film Fest: Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger

For decades, performance artist and writer Kate Bornstein has been exploding binaries and deconstructing gender. Now, in a playful, whirlwind documentary, we see this incredible human and the journey she has taken in her quest for life’s purpose.

Kate Bornstein Is… focuses on her brilliant work and multiplicity of complex identities, capturing her brilliant public performances and work to dismantle gender with wit and style. The documentary also tells a thoughtful tale of Bornstein’s personal life - through the film, Kate confronts her own mortality and purpose in life, giving particular urgency to her motto: "Do whatever it takes to make your life worth living. Just don’t be mean."

For director Sam Feder, who describes Bornstein as "the auntie who gives you life saving advice while passing you a joint", the value of Auntie Kate is in the loud and proud queerness she refuses to give up. "For some, assimilation is the answer; for others that’s a slow, painful, death. Kate has given me language, permission, and space to figure out my gender and how to move in the world." The New York-based Feder has toured internationally, hosting screenings and discussions of their work, since 2007.